danceswithcats and I have been banging the drum on this one for nearly a year now, starting last summer with the illegal pay raise that our legislature voted in the middle of the night, continuing with the comments of our esteemed Chief Justice, and culminating yesterday when we got rid of these clowns.
See, it can be done. Just stop voting for the morons with the “I” beside their name and you too can make a difference.
I am simply gleeful about this. It’s about time. Maybe now they’ll realize that passing a pay raise of 16 to 34% with no debate in the wee hours and that being arrogant asses about it is not the right thing to do. Probably not, but at least they now know that people are watching and they can be held accountable.
In Pennsylvania legislators can only vote for a pay raise that goes into effect after the next election so that they have to face the voters before getting paid. The raise they voted themselves started immediately by giving them the money as “unvouchered expenses” instead of salary, thus going around the spirit if not the letter of the law. Even though they repealed the raise, people are still pissed.
Also, they violated legislative rules in Pennsylvania in the way they passed the bill, as, firstly, they did not give the bill the full level of readings that it should under the law, and, secondly, the way that they introduced it didn’t follow the rules.
KBO! It’s the only guiding principle I have in the polling booth. The challenger has to be shown to be demonstrably worse than the incumbent for me to vote for an incumbent.
Boy this makes me proud of america. Holding politicians accountable. We just did this last year by ousting our long time mayor, 70% to 30%. The greatest defeat for an incumbent in our city’s history.
We really ought to start the independent “Anybody Else” party.
No party affiliations or screeds allowed. If you have ever held office before, you are demonstrably part of the problem, and you need to leave now. If you had all the right ideas, well, you must have been really ineffective. See ya.
I could get behind that as a non party affiliation.
Local, State, National, it’s all the same. Get a job. A new job, a different job.
Ha ha! Seems our incumbent Rep (and former mayor) Pat Fleagle was ousted as well. By Todd Rock, a young businessman running largely on the payraise issue. We’re talking tv ads from both sides! Here in little Waynesbar! :eek:
Bob said it best, the times they are a-changin’.
I was pretty gratified to see this happen too. I’ve lived in PA for 15 months, and this pay-raise issue caused the biggest uproar I’ve ever seen in local politics. Probably every newspaper and TV station in the state ranted over this for months. I think the generally shitty condition of the state’s finances has something to do with it, and the fact that PA’s legislative payroll was already higher than EVERY state except California, and PA has only 12 million people. The populace just finally couldn’t stomach any more.
Of course, to make the turnaround complete, Republicans should lose their majority in the Legislature in November. I’m not a Democrat, (or anything else) but that would make the message even more indelible.
PA seems to have a deeply intrenched culture of entitlement and low-level corruption in government at every level. I’ve never seen local governments so willing to be openly hostile to the press, with civil servants so quick to ignore all contrary voices to their own desires, or with a public so imbued with apathy. I really hope it changes, because the state has a lot to offer otherwise, and I’d like to stay.
What I don’t get is how these politicians could be so clueless as to vote themselves a pay raise in the dead of night and not expect a serious voter backlash. Did they really think they were bulletproof?
Yes, PA has a tremendous amount to offer, Lizard. That’s why Airman Doors and others who love this state can’t abide activity by comfy SOBs in Harrisburg.
Come to Gettysdope III on July 15th and meet the PA doper clan (MPSIMS) as well as dopers from NJ, MD, VA, and other places. The Philly dopers are a great crowd, too-if that’s nearer your location within the commonwealth. Love to meet ya!
They didn’t think they were bulletproof as much as they thought we were apathetic. When the electorate stood up, and as one voice said, “I don’t f**king think so!” it was an unexpected reality check, and that spurred a “throw the bastards out” movement which continues to the present.
Seriously…incumbency is so entrenched in this state that I’m sure they just thought everyone would go “meh” and forget about it by November. Look at it this way…I’m originally from Altoona. Robert Jubelirer has been my state senator and Rick Geist has been my state rep since was literally a child. It’s been almost 30 years!
